Showing posts with label Mudguards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mudguards. Show all posts

Monday, 9 April 2012

TY175: Rear Mudguard

This was a bit of a battle. I started with a new pattern rear guard, a NOS Yamaha inner metal guard, and all brand new Yamaha NOS fixings, grommets, etc.





So I offerd it all up, and with a lot of pushing, pulling and swearing, I managed to get all the fixings in, but, the mudguard was kinked, and under a lot of stress.... So, scratch head, and back to workbench.

As the inner guard was genuine Yamaha, I figured that would be the best alignment of the mounting holes. But, against my frame, the rear hole needed a little elongation to fit. You can just see it below.


I then had to elongate the three holes in the plastic guard to match the 3 mounts on the inner guard. Once this was done, it all mounted up OK. I had to add a washer to the rearmost mount, on the visible top of the plastic guard to hide the elongated hole, but it's not noticeable.



Below are some general shots of where the build is at.








Sunday, 8 January 2012

TY175: Front Mudguard

I bought an apparantly brand new, unused, front mudguard from eBay. The seller said it was removed from a brand new bike and left kicking around his garage for the past 25 odd years. New front guards are unavailable, although a guy in Australia has made a few pattern ones, but they are just over £100 inc p&p, so, I'll have a go with this one.
It was indeed, in good condition, with no major faults, but had suffered numerous scratches (some quite deep) over the years. The metal brace underneath was in very good, but tarnished condition. This will go to be re-zinc'ed in due course.
But, today's job in the garage, was to try and remove the scratches from the plastic. A job I've not been looking forward to!
So, out with the wet 'n dry, and onwards. This is the mudguard as I started with it:

First job was to drill out the 2 pop rivets to remove the brace. Easy job, and set aside for later zinc coating.
Then, starting with 80 grit Wet 'n Dry, used VERY wet to avoid melting the plastic, I made a start. I progressed through 160, 240 & 300 grit, and 4 hours later, ended up with this:

By this time, all traces of the scratches are gone, and I'm well on my way to a smooth finish. But, I'd had enough. I've a few more grades of paper to go through, right down to a 2000 grit. But, I'll come back to that. Does anyone recommend a product for final polishing, after the Wet 'n Dry??
Here's the guard loosely mounted in forks.